Planets & Outer Space Unit Study for Early Learners
An Astronomy & Astronauts: Planets & Outer Space Unit Study for Preschool and Early Elementary Homeschoolers
A Family-Style Planets and Outer Space Unit Study that combines Charlotte Mason style learning with STEAM activities for a whole family learning experience.
With this Planets and Outer Space Unit, you and your children will:
- Go on an adventure throught the solar system
- Listen to a Lakota legend about the “star people”
- Learn the names of the planets & their order
- Create a comet
- Make a Hubble Space Telescope
- Pretend play Hubble Mission Control
- and much more!
This “Planets and Outer Space” Unit Study is for the younger members of your family, preschool to 2nd grade, but feel free to mix and match activities from the Upper Elementary (3rd to 5th grade) and even Middle/High School (6th grade and up) levels to best suit the needs of your individual children.
There are four separate unit studies within this Astronomy and Astronauts Unit Study:
Moon and Stars
Space and Planets
- Early Learners
- Upper Elementary
- Middle & High School
Rockets and Spacecraft
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Planets & Outer Space Unit Study: English Language Arts
Read Aloud Book: Solar System
Adventures in the Solar System: Planetron and Me by Geoffrey Williams and Dennis Regan is available on Kindle and free with an Audible free trial. This wholesome story tells of a young boy whose toy rocket becomes a real spaceship that takes him into outer space while including facts about our solar system.
Independent Readers: Solar System
There’s No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System by Tish Rabe is one of the books in the Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library series. This revised edition is updated to reflect Pluto’s downgrade to a dwarf planet.
Traditional Folk Tale
This traditional Lakota legend, The Star People by SD Nelson, uses a traditional Plains Native American style of art for its illustrations.
The Lakota believed that their deceased loved ones were Cloud People and Star People. In this story, two children wander away from their village and are helped by their grandmother, who is now one of the Star People. If you can’t find a copy of this book, you can listen to the story here.
Grammar
Copywork and narration are real-life way to work on grammar skills. Use the Planets & Outer Space Narration page from the Free Resource Library. After your child has written the sentence from dictation, let her see the original to check it with her work. Have her correct her work, so that she knows how it should look. As an extension of his work, have him circle all of the nouns.
Use the FREE Planets & Outer Space Copywork pages from the Free Resource Library. The Copywork pages come in 3 levels for Early Elementary, Upper Elementary, and Middle-High School.
Vocabulary
Let your children become familiar with the Solar System Flashcards in the Free Resource Library. Note: you may want to only use the first page–with just the 8 planets–for your younger kids. Print two copies to create a memory style game by turning over 2 cards at a time to see if they are a match. Whoever ends up with the most matches wins.
Your early elementary kids can show what they’ve learned with their vocabulary cards by writing a short story using at least five of the vocabulary words.(Included in the Planets and Outer Space Unit Study BUNDLE)
Phonemic Awareness
Use the Moon & Stars vocabulary cards from the Free Resource Library to create a phonemic awareness activity. Take out any cards that start with a consonant blend (like pl or st) and set them aside. Next, have your child name each card and tell what the beginning sound of that word is (this is called “sound segmenting”).
Then, the next day, repeat the activity, but add in a sorting activity. Have your child decide if the beginning sound is a stop sound or a go sound. Stop sounds (like d, g, or k) have a definite stop, whereas go sounds last as long as you have breath (like s or m). I like to have kids try to pull the sounds out of their mouth to see if it can go or if it stops. Here’s the answer key for this activity:
- Stop sounds: g for galaxy, t for telescope, k for comet, j for Jupiter, and d for double star
- Go sounds: r for rocket, s for sun, v for Venus, n for Neptune, f for full moon, and m for Mars
Planets & Outer Space Unit Study: STEAM
Science: Planets, Comets, and Galaxies
Planets
The Planets by Gail Gibbons is a wonderful resource for learning about the planets of our solar system. Look for the fourth edition of this book to have the most up-to-date information about Pluto’s status as a dwarf planet.
After reading aloud The Planets by Gail Gibbons, or a similar title about the planets in our solar system, go back through the book with your child to review the facts discussed in the book. Then, use the Planets Listening Comprehension for Early Learners worksheet from our Free Resource Library to ask your child questions about the planets and record their answers.
If people in your family are still salty about Pluto being demoted, then Pluto’s Secret by Weitekamp and DeVorkin will help them better understand why Pluto is no longer considered a full-fledged planet. This book is simple enough for young primary students to understand, but also has a fantastic glossary, bibliography, and a who’s who in the back for intermediate and secondary students who would like to learn more about Pluto.
Help your kids learn a mnemonic aid that will help them remember the order of the planets. Use the Mnemonic Order of Planets worksheet from the Free Resource Library. Cut out the planet strips on the left of the page. Then write in the planets’ names on the blanks on the right side (in the correct order). Finally, staple the planet strips onto the correct planet names.
If you like to do crafty projects, try one of these with your kids for some hands-on learning that helps info “stick” in their brains.
- Make a super cute and simple solar system model with buttons and the instructions from Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational.
- Have any leftover yarn bits? Create the yarn-wrapped planets with And Next Comes L
- Still Playing School shows how to upcycle plastic lids and bottle caps into a solar system model.
- Use foam craft sheets and directions from Stir the Wonder to make cut-outs of the planets
Galaxies
Learn about five different types of galaxies, types of telescopes, and details about the Milky Way in Gail Gibbon’s Galaxies, Galaxies. This book is one that kids don’t outgrow and is perfect for family morning time!
Next, work with your children to complete the Galaxies Science Worksheet for Early Learners. Grab your copy from the Free Resource Library. Record your children’s answers for them if they aren’t able to write yet.
Comets
Caroline’s Comets: A True Story by Emily Arnold McCully tells about the first woman to discover a comet. As a young German girl, she was afflicted with illnesses and not treated well by her parents. She moved to England with her brother where she was the first woman to work as a scientist.
Comets are often described as a dirty snowball. Gather some small rocks (gravel), shaved ice, some loose dirt, maybe even some dryer lint. Mold them into a ball, using sprinkles of water to help it all stick together.
Planets & Outer Space Technology
Hubble Space Telescope
Help your kids make their own Hubble Telescope using the instructions from TP Craft, which uses regular household items like an empty tp tube, a popsicle stick and aluminum foil. Watch this video explaining how telescopes work.
Planets & Outer Space Engineering
Hubble Space Telescope
Set up a pretend play area for your kids based on the idea that they work for NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope. First, help your kids make their own Hubble Telescope using the instructions from TP Craft, which uses regular household items.
Next, let them check out these 360 degree virtual field trips of the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Mission Operations Room and Operations Support Room.
Now that they’ve built their telescope and they know what the missions and support rooms look like, they can use the Hubble Pretend Play printables from the can be found in the Planets & Outer Space PreK Pack in the WCH Shop to create their own Hubble Mission Control. The pretend play printables include a name badge, pictures of galaxies from Hubble, and monitors like the ones in the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Mission Operations Room and Operations Support Room.
Planets & Outer Space Arts
Read about God’s covenant with Abram in Genesis chapter 15. Next, paint a picture of the stars of Abram’s Blessing.
Either place small star stickers on a dark blue piece of construction paper or draw stars with oil pastels or crayons. Then paint blue watercolor paint over the stars.
Learn how to draw a comet with How to Draw for Kids. Or create a crayon resist solar system with The Crafting Chicks
Planets & Outer Space Math
Practice using ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc) as your child places the planets in order with the solar system poster and planets in the Planets & Outer Space PreK Pack in the WCH Shop
Use colored blocks or colored squares of paper to practice patterning. First start with a simple ABAB pattern, such as red/blue/red/blue. Then progress to more difficult patterns, like AAB, ABC, or ABB. Once those are easily mastered, move unto 4 color patterns: ABCD, ABBCD, ABCDD.
Planets of our Solar System: Music
Check out these cute songs to help your kids memorize the order of the planets.
The Planets of our Solar System Song (featuring The Hoover Jam) from Hopscotch The song from Hopscotch has a really cute part about Pluto!
The Planets Song | Nursery Rhymes and Kids Songs | Songs for Children By Guitar Bob
With older siblings or as background music: Listen to Holst’s The Planets songs. Pick one or two planets to listen to each day as the entire piece is 60 minutes long. There are only 7 movements as Holst did not compose a movement for Earth and Pluto had not yet been discovered (or demoted!).
Planets & Outer Space: Devotions
Our family loves the children’s devotional book Indescribable: 100 Devotions A
These
- 8-9
- 30-31
- 36-37
- 116-117
- 172-173
Planets & Outer Space Sensory and Body Awareness
Multitask and work on gross motor skills and following directions at the same time. Have your kids spin like a galaxy or fly like a comet with the Outer Space Gross Motor dice printable from the Free Resource Library
Sensory bins are an important tool to promote your child’s development of fine motor skills, language, self-regulation, and so much more.
Check out this article that details why sensory bins are worth the messy factor.
This outer space sensory bin starts with glow-in-the-dark aquarium gravel in an aluminum foil roasting pan. (I used a 5-pound bag of gravel in the largest roasting pan that the dollar store had).
Add in balls of aluminum foil for meteors and yellow pompoms for the sun.
I used purple Model Magic to make the purple planets and white glitter Model Magic to make the various phases of the moon.
Finally, I cut some stars out of yellow glitter foam sheets. I used my Cricut, but going old-school with a pair of scissors is totally doable. Making the planets, stars, and moons would be a great project for an older child.
You could also add in some marbles for planets (if your child is over 3 and no longer puts things in their mouth) and some space vehicles and toys like these or these with planets.
For another sensory activity get in some heavy proprioceptive work to promote sensory and body awareness. Create an orbit around the sun with some play-doh on a paper plate or other flat surface. Then, using a straw and a marble, have your student blow the planet around the sun.
Download all of the printables for this study individually from Free Resource Library for free
Or get all of the printables + all of the instructions, resources, & links in one convenient download in the WCH Shop (link below)
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Planets & Outer Space Family Field Trip
- Planetariums offer interactive programs for families to learn about the night sky with the use of a projector.
- Find the planetarium nearest you here.
- Or observe the real stars in space at an observatory. Most cities and even some smaller towns have observatories.
- Check out this site to find the observatory nearest you.
- Be sure to check your library for programs on astronomy also. Our local library has monthly astronomy events where kids can use a telescope and learn about current astronomical events and they even have telescopes to check out!
More Ideas & Resources for your Planets & Outer Space Unit Study
Usborne Space Activities (Wipe-Clean Activities) by Kirsteen Robson
You Choose in Space by Pippa Goodhart A fun book that is never the same story twice. My youngest son has loved this book since he was a toddler, looking at it with his dad and choosing silly options.
My very first Space book by Emily Bone Preschool to Kindergarten
The Ultimate Book of Space by Anne-Sophie Baumann for Elementary
Melissa & Doug On The Go Water Wow!: Space
DUPLO Town Space Shuttle Mission
Family schooling naturally has an overlap between learner’s abilities. That’s why morning baskets and unit studies work so well for homeschool families with more than one kiddo! Therefore, there may be activities detailed in another level that will be of benefit to your family even if you don’t have any students working at that level. Check them out below:
Planets and Outer Space: Early Learners, Upper Elementary, Middle & High School
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